The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-04

but Tn goll dinged If believe there's many
| worse lookin' ones
~Goll dingeds was the favorioe Lnwood
| swear word
Rips bad news was all too true Brownie
| had gone. Shirley followed by the next
| train, her heart in her mouth lest she shoula
| be too late.
She went to the place TO which Rip had
| directed her
Brownie was there alone She started
| when she saw Shirley, and made as IL to run
away Then she sat still and put on a defiant
| pout
Are you marriedln asked Shirley.
| mo-
Thank heaven!- exclaimed Shirley.
@But I'm going TO be in half an hour.
Don't say word; it won't do any good
you goose, You! The mans got wife al.
| ready
Il don't believe it"
Heres a letter from her She tells him
| the children have the whooping cough. She
wants some money. Its regular matrimo-
nial affection, you see; no doubt about it.
| Or, if you doubt it further, have seen a
man who knows the whole family
Brownie snatched the letter.
LET ME see,r she exclaimed
She looked at it and groaned aloud.
~She begins it My dear BILL and she spells
| dear deer, and she writes Bill with a
little 'b'-'My deer bin -
My deer bill7 came in at that moment
| Brownie glared at him.
you've got wife already"
ats no such thing!p
But it is Look here at this letter from
her. You really must excuse me, Mr. Wabb-
nobbs, but l couldn't think of marrying a
man whose wife has no more respect for him
sH..x Ipsr
Then Shirley spoke. She said only few
words, but they were her kind of words He
wilted under them as if he had been scorched
He even sought to excuse himself
'She was very willing to go with me" he
muttered sulkily. 1T was her fault as much
as mine. Your sister,
Brownie whirled on him in a fury.
~Oh, the shame of hint" she exclaimed
"Hear the man! To blame it on a womani
You're mean all through
And again she exclaimed, rather unreason-
ably, it must be confessed:
"To blame it on a womanl"
Then under the double fire, like Satan in
the old story, "he went his way and was seen
no more
Brownie kept brave enough front till
deer bill" was out of sight and hearing Then
she gave way to wild storm of tears, rage
and wounded vanity. For an hour she was a
very desperately angry and Inundated young
lady, till at last Shirley said:
There now, I'm disguised with your
"ltll be all over town. Oh, Lordl' groaned
Brownie What will the Frobisher girls
sayg"
1--we plan" said her sister "Only hold
your tongue and they'll never know it. No
body will know it."
"But howl"
- V.YR
take you there. 1t is not convenient, and it's
expensive, but we'll 60 We will start at
once, tonight. Nobody will know then but
that was what we came down here for, I'M
less, indeed, you tell it,"
II tell it,"
Thus Brownie was saved from her own
folly, saved from fate which would have
been to her, when she came to realize it,
verse than death. If she thought of her es-
cape once in the happy after years, she
thought of it a thousand times, and shud-
dered every time, as she remembered how
nearly she came to throwing away her hfe
"But how did you find out about it7" she
asked Shirley once.
"That," replied Shirley, gravely, "is some
thing l will never tell you.n
So ended one more of Brownies exploita-
tions "for the fun of it" After that they
said no more about it either way.
Patience, readeri Each trivial episode is a
link in the chain of the Carstone history.
The sisters went to the fair south to a land
of magnolias and mocking birds, of roses and
oleanders, "a land where it is always after
noon"
They made same pleasant acquaintances
One was an elderly English gentleman who
was making tour of America. He had a
fine, high bred manner, and at the same time
frank and simple ways that reminded Shirley
of her father. The sisters were drawn to
him at once and he to them.
Mr.. Edgerly had heard of Shirleys silk
colony. He was no less surprised than de-
lighted to find the founder of it in this young
and beautiful woman.
On journey a week counts for six months
in making acquaintance. Mr.. Edgerly and
the sisters felt like friends of lifetime when
the parting came. Between Shirley and Mr.
Edgerly there passed at sight that mystic
freemasonry of genuine high minded souls
which needs no credentials of introduction.
The sisters invited the English gentleman to
visit Linwood and the silk colony
He accepted the invitation as frankly and
as kindly as it had been given and spent
week with them. He was charming com
pany. He had Travelled up and down the
earth. and had world of novel and thrilling
experiences to tell. To Shirley, lonely soul,
shut up there apart III Linwood, communing
only with her own thoughts, he seemed like a
visitant from another world.
Even Mrs. Carstone was reused from her
wonted ladylike invalidism by the presence
of Mr. Edgerly. At the end Of a week be left
them He, on his part, was as pleased with
his stay as they were. The pretty village, the
women at work with the cobwebby silk fibre,
and above all Shirley herself, so strangely
beautiful-Shirley, with the brain of a sage,
the heart of child-all this interested him
keenly. He had seen all the world, he
thought, but here was something new even
for him He declared that here was the best
part of his visit to the United States.
With assurances on both sides of friendly
remembrances, he went away. Mrs Car
stone spoke of him ever after as "that de-
Hghtful English gentleman" Brownie called
him "that darling old Britisher," and wished
the young men were as lovely as the old
ones
Life settled down to its same old jog after
his departure. Time wore on without
break, for good or bad, in Shirley's exist
ence.
Three years after Mr.. Edgerly's visit she
and Brownie waited for the Linwood train
one day at Chesterton. While they waited
they Iunched At table near by were
lady and gentleman, also having luncheon.
What stuck-up looking young man that
is whispered Brownie.
He was good looking youth, with light
mustacbe, fine, frank face and sunny brown
hair. There was an air of pride and haughti-
ness about his mouth and square chin, some
what belied by the look in his merry blue
eye His manner proclaimed to all the world,
II am an Englishman"
"But his clothes are lovely" whispered
Brownie, further
The lady beside him had also a conscious
air of being superior being. She was mid
die aged and quick and jerky in her move
ments. She glanced restlessly about her,
talked in rapid, much accenting way, and
in shrill, high keyed voice. She talked
much and rather loudly, and used number
less obs, abs and indeeds.
The lady gave a sudden displeased sniff.
She beckoned to waiter and pointed to a
window in a far corner. A man was smoking
cigar in blissful peace there.
@Is smoking allowed in this roomp asked
she, in her shrill, rapid, tones. She paralyzed
the unhappy attendant with the glance Of
her eye.
He was obliged TO admit that smoking was
not wholly forbidden
Il can not have it,n said the much accenting
lady 4Will you go to that gentleman and tell
him can not have him smoking in here"
Involuntarily the merry British blue eyes
at the one table and the merry American
brown eyes at the other table met in a half
smile.
Shirley and Brownie came home. Shirley
found there letter from their friend, the
English gentleman of three years before. 1t
read:
my DEAR MISS CARsToNE-May 1 COM
mend to the tender mercies of yourself and
your sister my son, Robert Edgerlya He is
now In the United States and wishes, of